When you make your phone payments, do you notice that you’re using too much mobile data? Here are a few tricks to help you reduce unnecessary usage.

If you don’t have a constant Wi-Fi connection, and are not on an unlimited mobile data plan, you might be surprised to see how much data you are using on a monthly basis. But luckily, you do have control over how much you use, and there are ways to make sure your Android smartphone doesn’t rack up a huge phone bill next time. Here are a few pointers on how to save on mobile data:

How Did I Use So Much Data?

Your phone secretly eats data

Automatic updates for apps can consume data even when you’re not using your phone. It’s nice to have up-to-date and working apps, but each time your phone tells you it’s successfully updated an app, it means data was used without you ever expressly asking it to take steps to do so. You can change this by going to the Google Play Store, clicking on the 3 bars in the top left corner, and choosing “Auto-update apps”. From here, you will want to make sure that “Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only” is checked.

Apps Run in the Background

Do you get a push notification letting you know every time a new email comes through? This means that your Email app is communicating with its server every few minutes to ensure that it can alert you of any unread messages, and that means more data is being used. Chances are, several other apps are doing the same thing 24/7. Some people run over their data limits this way without even knowing it. After barely even using the smartphones or apps, they have gone over their limit. But with just a few clicks, you can decide how much data you want to use, and save yourself the surprises.

Track which apps use data

How To Turn Off Your Data

Want to turn off your data completely, or at least set a limit? Just swipe down from the top of the screen, click the gear icon (i.e. settings), and click on “Data Usage”. From here, you can uncheck the box marked “Mobile Data”, or check the box to “set mobile data limit”.

Go to Settings and select Data Usage

If you do this, you will only be able to access Internet with WiFi (unless you use Be-Bound® – see next section).

If you turn off data, you will see this message

Get Internet without Data or WiFi

There’s still a way to get Internet services once you’ve taken these steps to turn off mobile data on your Android smartphone. Be-Bound® allows you to access Internet services even when your mobile data is turned off. Take advantage of this solution to save on data. Get emails and more wherever you go without worrying about runaway costs.